CHINA ARQUEOLOGIA golden-age-chinese-archayeolog

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Bronze ding tripod with bear-shaped legs
Height 18.1 (jVs), diam. 20 (j ? /%)
Western Han Dynasty, late second century BCE
(c. 113)
From the tomb of Liu Sheng at Lingshan,
Mancheng, Hebei Province
Hebei Provincial Museum, Shijiazhuang
Numerous bronze vessels were found in the tomb
of Liu Sheng, most of them plain utensils — basins,
cauldrons, steamers, and flasks — intended for the
day-to-day preparation of food. This example, 1
however, evokes an ancient tradition of ritual ding
food vessels. Between each of the two U-shaped
handles on either side of the body, fastened on a
small pin, an animal-like peg can be slotted beneath
two of the four animals standing on the lid to hold
the lid in position, or removed from this locking
position and lifted backward.
It seems unlikely that this ding and the hu from
the tomb of Liu Sheng (cat. 132) were intended for
ritual ancestor offerings, although late Zhou and
Han practices have yet to be fully explored. It may
be that the plain ding and hu found in many tombs
were intended for this purpose.
While this bronze has many similarities with
earlier Eastern Zhou ding vessels, particularly those
from the Jin state in Shanxi and its successors, it
also has several characteristics that point to a later
manufacture: the locking device (which suggests
that the container was filled with something important
that merited extra security in cooking or serving)
is not seen during the earlier period, while
the bear-shaped feet are a feature common to many
Han bronzes. (Freestanding bear-shaped feet seem
to have been intended to support lacquered vessels
that have since decayed and disappeared. 2 )
Bears are somewhat unusual in the repertoire
of ancient Chinese animal motifs, and no bronze
examples are known from the Shang or the Zhou
periods. While the bear figure may have been a Han
innovation, part of a repertoire of new designs, two
other sources for the image have also been proposed.
It may have been borrowed from Western
Asian, Central Asian, and Siberian images of "the
396 EARLY IMPERIAL CHINA